Death of a Hot Chick (32 page)

But it wasn’t Kaye who reached down, grabbed
Lizzie with one hand, yanked her up onto the finger pier, and
flipped her over on her back. It was Gregory. “Call an ambulance,”
he said, then put his hand on her throat, feeling for a heart beat.
Then he laid his head on Lizzie’s chest, listening for a moment
before he began rhythmic thrusts to the center of her chest.

I found the ladder and climbed out of the
water. I placed a hand on Gregory’s arm and asked. “What can I
do?”

“
Check her breathing
again.”

I placed my hand near Lizzie’s face.
Nothing. Then something. “A gasp, maybe two.”

“
No more?” he asked.

“
No.” He moved forward, pinched her
nose, and placed his mouth over hers. I asked, “Can I
help?”

He breathed into her mouth, listened, then
returned to her chest. “I’ve got it.”

I knew my certification wasn’t up to date.
But Gregory had to have taken the test recently. He couldn’t run
his business without that.

“
Calling the police,” Kaye said into
her cell phone.

“
Tell them the killer swam away.” The
killer was wet, but Gregory’s sleeve was dry. It wasn’t him in the
water. I’d had to check.

My sister still held the phone to her ear,
waited for an answer, but asked, “Did you see him? His face, I
mean?”

Slowly, I shook my head. I knelt down,
then sat. I rubbed my arms and took gulps of air. I was exhausted.
Kaye screeched into the phone—a jumble of words. The killer had
been a glob of darkness in the water. I’d tangled with him, sensed
his size. Taller? Stronger, definitely. The words whirling in my
head became distinct
. “You did it. You
found my killer. Why didn’t I know?”

“
Nicole,” I whispered. “Is that you?”
I heard no more. I was so wet, so tired. “Nicole,” I whispered
again, but she was gone.

Figured. She got what she wanted and she
left. Did it ever occur to her that the living wanted to know who
killed her? Needed to know. He was after Lizzie.

“
Doug will be here in a few minutes,”
Kaye said. “Did you see who it was?”

All I could do was shake my head.

“
Then let’s find out.” Kaye grabbed
her flashlight and ran for the parking lot.

I knew exactly what Kaye would do. Watch for
the guy to emerge from the water and drive away. And, she’d try to
stop him—by herself.

With a glance at Gregory, who nodded his
agreement, I unfolded my legs and charged after her, nearly falling
when I hit the gravel. My shoes were back inside Lizzie’s boat but
I wouldn’t stop. Kaye was way ahead, and I heard her.

“
Stop,” she yelled. “Officer Yarnell,
he’s over here.”

The last had to be her attempt at scaring
the killer, because Doug was nowhere in sight. I pumped my arms,
bumped up my speed, although my feet complained.

Then I heard a car zoom out of the parking
lot.

“
Did you see him?” I yelled at
Kaye.

“
A white car,” she said. “Some kind of
hatch-back. Or maybe it was just light colored.”

I reached Kaye. “Did you see him?” I
repeated.

Kaye punched numbers into her cell
phone. “The killer just left the marina in a white car,” she said,
probably before anyone answered, because she repeated that sentence
three times. After the third time she hesitated before replying.
“It could have been any very light color. Sort of a hatch-back,
high-rounded rear end.” After another pause, she said, “I don’t
even know what kind of car
I
drive.”

I sat on the ground and started rubbing the
bottoms of my feet. “Some detective,” I muttered. “Where are your
famous powers of observation?”

“
But I got the first two numbers of
his license plate. Eight-three.”

That’s when we heard the siren.

“
He’s on his tail,” Kaye said, and I
recognized her self-satisfied tone of voice.

“
Okay, super detective. What did you
see?”

“
I didn’t really recognize him. Did
you hear that? A crash.”

The noise was loud enough. Had to be close.
“Did the killer run down the police car? Or what?” Except, now I
heard two sirens. One of them stopped, but behind me. Ambulance?
The other still moved. “Somebody else’s accident. The cop car is
still moving. Maybe one’s the ambulance.”

Kaye said, “I don’t know what any of the
suspects look like, except for Mr. Joline. I just got a glimpse, so
it could have been he. Or Chester, or Brandon. Or somebody else. He
was wearing a Speedo. Probably not Mr. Joline.”

“
Which means if he gets ahead enough
to slip some clothes on, the police won’t know he’s all wet,” I
said as I turned back.

“
There’s always hair. His hair has to
be wet, but I mostly saw legs. Long, slim legs.”

“
Tall guy, then? Not a bit plump?” I
asked as I tried to step around any sharp stones. “Not Chester or
Mr. Joline. Brandon is tall.”

“
So is Rolf.”

“
Rolf?”

Kaye jogged ahead, lighting the path. “Mr.
Joline’s guy. You know, the shadow.” Mentally, I nodded as she
continued. “Lucky you found Lizzie. How did you do it?”

How had I found her? “Lucky the water’s only
six feet deep.” Maybe less. She’d been on the bottom, and I sure
wouldn’t have found her in twenty, or a hundred feet.

We reached Lizzie’s dock. The ambulance,
with its now stilled siren, had pulled up. The driver and his
assistant hauled a gurney over close to her.

“
She’s breathing,” Gregory
said.

I leaned over her. “Are you awake? Did you
see who it was?” I asked.

Lizzie moved her hand, opened her eyes, then
closed them.

“
Excuse me,” the attendant said as he
elbowed me aside and placed an oxygen mask over Lizzie’s
face.

That’s when the police car pulled up and I
realized the siren had been getting louder and closer, not farther
away.

“
Doug, the killer got away,” I yelled.
“Didn’t you see him leave the marina?”

Suddenly a tall, thin apparition appeared
out of the dark. “Hey, what’s all the commotion here?”

“
Dad?” I asked. “Why are you
here?”

But Dad, as usual, was doing the talking.
“Don’t tell me they got the police after you. It’s not that much
after midnight,” Dad said. He hesitated, almost long enough for me
to slip a word in before he added, “There’s an ambulance here,
too?”

Kaye asked the question. “Dad, what are you
doing here?”

“
Well, I’m glad you’re watching after
your sister. And I swear, isn’t that little Douglas Yarnell? Now,
Doug, you should know better than try to arrest Cyd. She’ll have
that boat out of the slip in no time.”

I couldn’t help it. I collapsed with
hysterical laughter, flopped on the ground and held my head in my
hands.

Kaye said, “Dad, you have misconstrued the
entire situation. A killer just got away, and....how did you get
here?”

“
Granny insisted on driving, but your
mother is with her. The car’s okay, so they headed
home.”

“
The car’s okay? Did I miss
something?”

“
Just a little fender bender. You know
how Granny drives. Probably her fault, but the other guy didn’t
stop. Just as well. He was naked.”

I looked at Kaye. She looked at me. As one,
we said, “Not naked. Wearing a Speedo!”

Chapter 27

“
Dad, he was the killer. He got
away!”

“
Excuse me, coming through.” It was
the ambulance crew with Lizzie on their gurney. Her eyes were
closed. The third attendant held the oxygen mask in place. Lizzie
must have been breathing.

“
Somebody better go with her,” Kaye
said. “I’m dry, so....”

“
I’ll go,” Gregory said.

“
She knows me. We can’t let her wake
up with a strange man staring at her.”

Officer Doug said, “Kaye, you’re an eye
witness. I need your testimony.”

“
Call me,” she said. “No, I’ll call
you from the ambulance. Cyd, here are my keys. Go to my place. Take
a nice, hot shower and change into dry clothes. I’ll make sure they
keep a guard at Lizzie’s door.”

“
Good idea, but I’ll drive her,”
Gregory said, which Kaye probably didn’t hear. She was
gone.

Doug Yarnell took over. With a voice that
reeked of, “the old man won’t know a thing,” he said, “Mr. Landis,
please tell me you know the color and make of the car.”

“
Well, you know, when you’re looking
at a nude driving a car, you don’t pay much attention to anything
else. I never saw the likes of that.”

But the Dad I knew was ever-prepared and
ready for anything. “You got the license plate number, didn’t you,”
I said.

“
Oh, yeah, that’s right. Wrote it
right down on a piece of paper. Started with, let’s see. An eight
and a three.”

“
That’s what Kaye said.”

“
Great, Mr. Landis. What is the
complete number?”

“
On the paper, like I said.” He looked
at Doug’s outstretched hand. “Well, now. I don’t have the paper. I
left it in the car. Can’t be too careful. Somebody might have
mugged me.”

“
Could you call Mrs. Landis and ask
them to return?”

From the look on his face, I knew that
ever-prepared Dad was the only one ready to send, or especially,
receive calls.

“
You have the only cell phone in your
pocket, right?”

Dad looked a bit sheepish. “I’ll leave a
message. They’ll hear it when they get home.”

“
That will be twenty
minutes.”

“
Well....”

“
Okay, Dad,” I said. “Why won’t they
be there?”

“
They’ll go straight to the slip, turn
the lights on...you know, get ready for us to motor in. And then
they’ll wait, probably. Well, maybe Granny will hit the hay, but
she won’t check for any telephone messages. You know Granny. Those
answer machines are too complicated. She can’t figure out which
button to push.”

“
So no one will get any message for
hours?”

“
Oh, wouldn’t be more than two or
three hours, I should think.”

Doug closed his notebook and pocketed it.
“Then, Mr. Landis, you and I will drive there in my police car with
the siren on all the way.”

“
Well now, is that really
necessary?”

“
And you will answer my cell phone
when your daughter calls, because I’ll be driving faster than the
law allows. Come on.”

Somehow, I didn’t care who did what. My feet
hurt. I was all out of puff, like Granny would say. What would
normal people say? Exhaustion. Yeah. Struggling under water with a
killer will do that. I shivered. I looked at the keys in my hand.
They were keys, but why?

“
Shower, remember?” Gregory
said.

“
Right.” I shook my head. Crossed my
arms and clapped my shoulders.

“
Kaye’s place? Or, how about
mine?”

Okay, I was back among the living.
Alert. Almost. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew what I
should
do. But I had to do something
else completely. “Neither. We go straight to the
hospital.”

~
~

“
Wake up. We’re here,” Gregory
said.

I wasn’t really sleeping. I was too keyed
up. Too exhausted. At least I wasn’t too wet, except for my hair.
I’d changed into my dry clothes inside Lizzie’s boat. I was ready
to drop, but even with my eyes shut, my brain had raced overtime.
“Yeah,” I said and opened the car door.

The hospital entrance looked miles away. I
sat, and instead of swinging my legs out of the car, I lowered my
head into my hand.

“
You don’t have to go in. Kaye will
take care of things. You’re too damn tired.”

That wasn’t all, I realized in a flash. I
hadn’t been thinking straight, or at all. I had to get out of the
car. I swung my feet out, leaped to the sidewalk, and ran for the
lights over the hospital door.

Gregory caught up to me at the door. “Hey,
what’s going on?”

“
Leave me alone. Let me
go.”

He took me by the shoulders and shook. “You
were asleep. You’re still dreaming—some nightmare. Snap out of
it.”

I was so close to the door. I didn’t see
anyone inside, but they must know I was there. I asked, “Why were
you at the marina tonight?”

“
Suddenly you think I’m the
killer?”

“
No. I don’t know what to think. I....
Let me go inside.”

“
Finley. She told me you’d be at the
marina. She told me all about the plan you kooks had to trap the
killer.”

“
Oh.”

He wrapped his arms around me just as my
knees gave out. He murmured in my ear, “CeeCee, don’t give up on
me.”

I pulled away from Gregory and headed for
the door. My head was a-jumble. I’d been ready to blame him. Until
he said Finley told him. Was that true? How could I tell?

“
Forgot. You don’t like that nickname,
do you?”

I’d forgotten something else. The killer
wouldn’t have saved Lizzie like Gregory did. “Sorry. So sorry,” I
mumbled. I was completely useless. My brain was still under water.
Nicole’s ghost might be happy, but the killer could kill again.